From tragedy to triumph

COMMENTARY

September 3, 2009|By George Diaz, Sentinel Columnist

We evolve in different ways. Maturity is a work in progress, often measured by baby steps.

For others, the journey is much more traumatic. Marc Buoniconti was once a wild child in South Florida. His ran the streets without fear of repercussions, whether it was throwing bricks through car windows or numbing his mind with a beer bottle or a more potent buzz.

And then, something saved him from his self-inflicted excess.

Marc Buoniconti became a quadriplegic.

It's been almost 24 years now since Buoniconti used his body as a jackhammer, hurtling headfirst to stop a running back on a third-and-1 play. A linebacker at The Citadel, he was still prone to fits of mischief and a lax attitude in class. But he was all in when it came to football. His father was Nick Buoniconti, a star linebacker during the Dolphin heydays in the 1970s. His brother Nick Jr. played linebacker, too, at Duke. Marc, only a sophomore, had the potential to play on Sundays.

Then his world turned black. His neck was broken.

Marc has never walked again. But through the tragedy he found a greater purpose.

Buoniconti is the president of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the world's most comprehensive spinal cord injury research center. Established in 1985, the organization is optimistic that the FDA will approve human clinical trials shortly. Yes, it's a crapshoot, but research using paralyzed laboratory rats show that cell transplants can generate a 70 percent return of normal walking function.

It's not an ego-driven exercise. Buoniconti's injury is too severe for him to be considered for the trials. But he's come to terms with that -- and a lot of other issues -- since the accident.

"You get slapped in the face with something like this and it makes you think twice about the type of person you are," Buoniconti said. "I owe it to my family and the people who surround me who have enabled me to go forward and allowed me to focus on something more positive. I was immature and 19-years-old when I had the injury, but it made me grow quickly."

Buoniconti fought to live at first, needing the help of a ventilator to breathe. His life is better now. He has a handful of around-the-clock nurses at his home thanks to his father's insurance benefits. But Buoniconti's schedule routinely involves crisis management. He recently needed surgery to treat a recurring urinary-tract infection.

"You know me, man," Buoniconti said. "I'm a ticking time bomb."

So he doesn't dawdle. Buoniconti tools around in a motorized wheelchair, not asking for sympathy but for money. He's become one of the most visible faces in the fight for a cure since the death of actor Christopher Reeve in 2004.

Buoniconti mingles in high circles himself with folks who have embraced the cause -- from Emilio and Gloria Estefan to Bob Costas and Michael Jordan, who will join him in a black-tie affair at the Astoria Hotel in Manhattan next month for the project's signature event. About $300 million has been raised for research through The Buoniconti Fund. Every cent is needed: The center spends about $59,000 a day to maintain its research programs.

But it's not all about the big checks. Nick, now an Orlando attorney, was pleasantly flabbergasted when a man he causally knew at the gym gave him a check for $500 a few weeks ago.

"It's unbelievable that Marc has taken this tragedy and done what he's done, when the majority of folks would have gone into a dark corner," Nick Buoniconti Jr. said. "He's coming to the realization this is what he's meant to do -- raise enough money so someone doesn't have to live like he does. He's accepted the fact that he might not benefit from this. He's aware of that and still so positive."

And why not? Check out the Aug. 24 issue of Sports Illustrated. Buoniconti is on the cover, subject of a poignant profile by S.L. Price. "The Rehabilitation of Marc Buoniconti" documents his journey in great detail.

"Finally, I did the one thing my dad was able to do: Get on the SI cover," Buoniconti said. "Pinch me, man. I'll take it any way I can get it."

The wild child is a man now. Numb to the touch, his body has awakened, moving forward, relentlessly.